SEA estimates oilseed crops production at 251.49 lakh tonnes

New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS) Industry body, the Solvent Extractor’s Association of India (SEA) has estimated the country’s total production of oilseed crops, grown during kharif and rabi seasons in the 2019-20 (November-October) season, at 251.49 lakh tonnes, nearly 3 percent higher from last year.

As per the estimates of SEA, the area under kharif and rabi oilseeds crop for 2019-20 has marginally increased to 260.07 lakh hectares (ha) from 258.45 lakh hectares last year.

The industry body has pegged the output of oilseeds in 2019-20 at 251.49 lakh tonnes against 244.08 lakh tonnes last year, up by 2.94 percent due to higher yield in groundnut and castorseed.

Groundnut crop has been pegged at 62.55 lakh tonnes against 46.85 lakh tonnes last year, due to increase in yield from 1,009 kg per hectare to 1,419 kg per hectare.

SEA has estimated rapeseed-mustard, including toria and taramira crop, at 74 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 against 75 lakh tonnes last year.

Sunflowerseed crop has been pegged at 1.40 lakh tonnes against 1.72 lakh tonnes previous year.

According to the industry body, sesame seed crop production increased to 5.50 lakh tonnes from 4.86 lakh tonnes last year.

Similarly, castorseed crop has sharply increased to 19.61 lakh tonnes from 10.82 lakh tonnes. The crop area also increased to 9.92 lakh ha from 7.27 lakh ha of previous year.

The total production including cottonseed and copra is estimated at 364.64 lakh tonnes, compared to 344.10 lakh tonnes in 2018-19.

The industry body said that import and export of oilseeds has also increased during 2019-20. India imported about 520,000 tonnes of oilseeds, including 360,000 tonnes of soybean and 147,000 tonnes of sesame seed.

During the same period, India exported about 10.62 lakh tonnes of oilseeds, mainly groundnut (648,000 tonnes), sesame seed (282,000 tonnes) and soybean (75,000 tonnes).

The total vegetable oil availability from kharif and rabi oilseeds crops, including import of oil seeds for the year 2019-20 (Nov-Oct), increased to 85.38 lakh tonnes from 76.87 lakh tonnes last year.

Import of edible oil during 2019-20 (Nov-Oct) likely to decrease and estimated at 133.0 lakh tonnes. Import of non-edible oil is likely to be around 2.50 lakh tonnes only, said the industry body.

Total import of vegetable oils (edible + non-edible) is estimated at 135.50 lakh tonnes during 2019-20 (Nov-Oct) against 155.49 lakh tonnes in 2018-19, due to demand destruction by Covid-19, mainly from HoReCa segment and higher domestic availability, the SEA said.

–IANS

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